Sunday, March 27, 2016

Sometimes I feel like I'm from another planet.

You realize, don't you, that most Catholics do not read Catholic blogs or dish outside mainstream Catholic media?

So anyway. An older lady was filling the holy water fonts at church, and I asked her if she gets it from the baptismal-pool-fountain or from a separate holy water reservoir-tank. She looked at me like I was nuts and told me she takes it from the baptismal font. She said it is real holy water.

I tried to explain that I was only asking because I read so much online about using the old ritual to bless holy water, exorcists recommend it - so I'm told - because the prayers are this and that and they use salt. She looked at me like I was nuts again, and politely said, "this is the water Father asked me to use. He blessed it last night and dipped the Easter Candle in it and everything."

And I felt really, really nuts.

I wasn't challenging her, I just wanted to know if that was the water I was supposed to use to fill my bottle to go.

It was another sign I read too much crap online about exorcists and Fr. Z and how much the devil hates Latin, and The Book of Blessings is crap and you need exorcism salt in the water and the right prayers and you can't receive communion in the hand or else they will turn black in purgatory and if you wear jeans to Mass you're no damn good - would you dress like that for Oscars? and there's a huge storm coming and 1/3 of humanity will be wiped out on the first Thursday of March April or May on a date which coincides with a major event in the Church and the feast day of a martyr for receiving communion on the tongue only.

Now tell me who is nuts.

Still me? Fine. Thanks so much.

BTW - being Easter, there is not one rabbit in my backyard - which just goes to show everyone - they are all out delivering Easter baskets!

14 comments:

I don't know, I was happy to get a big jar of Epiphany water done with the blessed salt, the hour-long sung Latin prayers from my local parish, etc. God does respond when we respond with more care/seriousness. The priest mentioned a dog began howling as soon as he began the chant, and didn't stop until the rite was done. The priest has an amazing voice. He chalked it up to devils having a good joke.

There are many rituals that have fallen by the side of the road. My daughter was baptized in 1984. A fine old priest was frustrated because she put up a struggle and moved her head side to side and he kept missing her forehead. He persisted until he got the aim just right which only made her more angry. I am sure he thought he was fighting the devil and he (the priest) was not going to give up until he got it right! The great storm and the date on a martyr for the Eucharist is from the Gabrandal predictions. I follow a group on Facebook that is worldwide. They seem reasonable, committed and are awaiting it fervently. Some see 2017 as the year. With world events so terrible and the state of our nation it does not seem so far fetched. On another note Mother Angelica passed today. May she rest in eternal peace.

oh I know I am on the crazy train right with you....recently read that the devil delights in how today people cross themselves 'the wrong way', the way satan likes: upside down ! yes ! no the People are not on their heads: one Must really make the sign of the cross thus: forehead: down, low: left right on shoulders: so that the long leg of cross, is the lower one...oh now I am all confused, again... seriously: for me, the reading of books like Kevin Orlin Johnson's wonderful Apparitions: Mystic Phenomena and What They Mean, and the like, initially was like a substitute for the secular stuff: especially the new-age garbage, & astrology....especially for Catholic junkies like me.

consolata, I wouldn't worry too much about getting the across part backwards; Orthodox and Eastern Catholics make the sign of the cross thus: forehead; down; right left on shoulders, but in many cases make a smaller cross altogether than Latin Rite Catholics.

I so feel like I'm on another planet sometimes. I work for a parish so my 'boss' is a priest. I come from the other end of the philosophical spectrum in that I was raised in the Latin Mass by a very old-fashioned Catholic mom, and I tend toward the wing-nut side. I'm married to a non-Catholic (convalidated) and we have never been blessed with children (which gets side eyed all the time). I see the metaphorical wringer my boss gets put through by both the social justice Catholics and the chapel veilers on a daily basis. I have to question my own motives all the time: am I pushing for Vespers in the evening because it's a beautiful prayer to God and a chance to evangelize and offer community prayer, or am I doing it because it's pretty? My inner Church Lady reminds me: Satsn loves conflict, especially in the Church. Anyway sorry for the book excerpt. I mostly only read your blog and Fr. Z's. It's like checking in on NPR and Fox News ;)

And one more thing: I remember somebody once told me that a rosary prayed on an unblessed rosary was prayed to the devil and not Mary, which is just as stupid as the backwards sign of the cross. It's that old prayer as magic formula idea: if you get the charm wrong, it unleashes the powers of darkness. It's as detrimental to Catholicism (that way of thought) as liturgical dance. (I kid! Sort of...)

FWIW I cook w/blessed salt. And put it in my Kraftig Light (that's a German thing BTW). And I'll wear jeans to Mass (but not the Oscars) because I know He loves me so much He doesn't really care what I wear as long as it's clean & serviceable and I'm THERE (but I did wear a bowtie/sport coat Easter Sunday ;) We're all hypocrites so what's it matter.

It's the grace and power of the Risen Lord that makes the water holy and efficacious, working through his Church...NOT the language or the salt or the particular prayers of times-gone by...it's the prayers which this same Christ-powered Church declares to be the ones to be used no matter what blogger, or exorcist or whomever thinks otherwise...don't you think?

Veritatis Splendor

About Me

... My idea of what I am is falsified by my preoccupation about what I do. And my illusions about myself are bred by contagion from the illusions of other men. We all seek to emulate one anothers imagined greatness....If I do not know who I am, it is because I think I am the sort of person everyone around me wants me to be. I have asked myself whether I wanted to become what everybody else seems to want to become... only to realize that I do not admire what everyone else seems to admire. I have only thus begun to live after all... But it is very late. - Adapted from a quote by Thomas Merton

Holy Face of Jesus

Show us your face and we shall be saved. "Each soul is the object of My special love. That is why I am so grateful to those who are resourceful and bringing back sinners to Me. Keep this in mind then. I gave My life for them in the most atrocious torture, for these poor beloved ones. A humble repentance, and they are already on My heart. So speak gently to them. Speak with tenderness. A brusque remark could drive them farther away." - He and I

Prayer to St. Michael

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the malice and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.